The community in Diablo 4 is currently having a big argument. Core gamers are demanding improvements and criticizing mechanics. Casuals are annoyed by the constant and loud criticism. Two players have now taken action and stood up to the critics. Successfully, they are backed by tens of thousands of fans.
What is the argument in the community:
- Diablo 4 was released on June 2nd in Early Access and has been very well received since then.
- However, about a week after the release, the first criticisms emerged. Especially avid players complain that there is too little to do in the endgame.
- One of the biggest pain points: the development. Blizzard often comes up with nerfs and according to current information wants to see a lot of grind in the upcoming Season 1. This also bothers well-known figures:
This is what the “casuals” say: In the Diablo 4 subreddit, threads often arise, but they usually revolve around the same 2–3 topics. Different people complain about the same content. But the sheer number of posts floods the forum.
This apparently bothers some people who just want to have fun. In a post with over 12,000 upvotes, a user writes: He is a man with children and little time. He just reached level 40, while on Reddit some nerds with 150 hours in the game criticize mechanics he has never seen.
People seem so dissatisfied that he would rather be a casual. That is more fun – and he receives a lot of support. Another user even gathers over 23,000 upvotes and over 9,000 comments. He is married, has friends, and responsibilities, and also takes an evening off from Diablo 4.
The user states: most players are like him on average. Not core gamers. The upvotes and our survey on age show: most players are actually rather in the “dad” age and no longer youthful “no-lifers.” In his post, the user explains:
- The story is excellent – why should one buy the game if they intend to skip it?
- The reputation grind is part of the game, not an obstacle. It is not just about getting as much XP per minute as possible for the general public.
- Empty spots in dungeons are breaks where you can talk with your friends, not annoying “backtracking” issues.
- To directly declare someone an enemy because they like the game and disagree with a criticism is not helpful in achieving anything.
Diablo 4 is neither work nor a race for anything, not even competitive. There are other games for that. Diablo is aimed at casuals, and if Blizzard only listens to core players, a large part of the player base will drop out.
Some players are absolutely taking it to the extreme. A Barbarian was able to defeat the hardest boss in the game in just a few minutes, while others have to flee after 24 minutes:
First no one wants MMO features – Now everyone wants more MMO features
Between the parties, a growing gap seems to exist. However, critics are now tearing each other apart and fracturing into arguments about what they should find good or bad. Recently, the criticism of Diablo 4 has even become quite contradictory.
Especially before the release, the idea of a shared world in Diablo 4 was strongly criticized. Players did not want strangers in “their” Diablo but wanted to play solo. Now core gamers are demanding features that one typically knows from MMORPGs, such as:
- a global chat for communication
- a dungeon finder to form groups faster (because that gives more XP)
- the option to teleport directly to a dungeon (via Reddit)
Behind this lies the thought that one wants to keep the time between the grind of dungeons as short as possible, have to exchange as little as possible, and get all bonuses with one click. Diablo 3 perfected this towards the end – which is again a strange twist.
For especially a possible resemblance to Diablo 3 has also been heavily criticized. Now people are repeatedly demanding that Diablo 4 should align more with Diablo 3 (via Reddit). There is therefore clearly no consensus on what Blizzard should change and how.
For the majority of players, however, Diablo 4 seems to be just as good as it currently is. Aside from a few bug fixes and minor balance adjustments, casuals seem to need nothing right now and appear satisfied. Some are not even able to cope with the increasing difficulty:
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